Autonomous submersible vehicles are well known; they are usually released by a mother ship into the ocean or large lakes; then, they submerge and explore largely autonomously the corresponding submarine area, e.g. to check the laying of a submarine cable, to search for mineral deposits or to explore the flora and fauna under water. Following completion of such a submerged operation, the submersible vehicle is taken back aboard the mother ship, for example, to replace or recharge one or more batteries of the submersible vehicle. The submersible vehicle can also be repaired or maintained on-board the mother ship, or the results of the submerged operation are evaluated.
The problem with such a pick-up of the submersible vehicle is that the sea and large lakes are usually characterized by a certain sea state that powerfully moves both the mother ship and the submersible vehicle once it surfaces. Thus, even spotting the afloat submersible vehicle from the mother ship can be problematic, in particular, rough seas makes it difficult to moor a deck crane to a fastening hook or the like of the submersible vehicle.
Solutions are known, in which the mother ship lowers a receiving cage into the water to a depth at which the impact of rough seas is only slightly noticeable. To facilitate pick-up, the submersible vehicle then maneuvers into this receiving cage that is then picked up with the therein submersible vehicle and placed on the deck of the mother ship or a corresponding base station.
The problem here is that such a pick-up cage is relatively large and costly to manufacture. In addition, the submersible vehicle is hardly accessible on the deck of the ship when it is in this receiving cage.